Poland and Polish Discussion Group and Forum

Welcome to the original English language Poland and Polish discussion group board. This message forum is a place where English-speaking Poles, foreigners (expats) living in Poland, and anyone with a genuine interest in Poland can discuss and read the views of others concerning Poland. Subjects include: Polish news and current affairs; Life in Poland; politics; genealogy research; Polish culture and history; advice and tips on visiting Poland; Polish property and investment issues. The aim of our group is to increase awareness of wonderful Poland using the English language and allow and foster the honest debate and exchange of opinions on anything vaguely related to Poland and Polish - positive, negative and/or neutral! To state the obvious: all opinions and views expressed on this site are solely those of their respective authors and are not necessarily those of anyone else! Messages consisting of ads will be deleted.

Angela the best place to buy a cheap version of your chosen camera is the internet.

John Lewis also apparently do a price match so that if you find a product cheaper in a shop they will give you the difference back, but I have yet to try that option. Apparently (so a work colleague tells me), it is restricted to certain geographical areas. They seem to be getting quite snotty with their customer service these days. A pity, they used to be one of the best shops around. a sign of the times...I wanted to find out about a tv model at Christmas and the sales assistant pointed me to a queue managed by a numbered ticketing system! Do people really take a ticket and wait just to talk to a sales person?! They have also introduced cattle run type tills where you queue in a little zig zag for multiple cashiers (Jack dee was sending these up in his show just the other day). What happened to their personal touch? I phoned them up today about some material I had bought and the helpful customer services lady puts me through to ... haberdashery ....::sigh:: I gave up!

Same thing with my local waitrose near work. They have introduced a number system where you queue up in a zig zag to wait to be told by a high pitched voice machine which number till to go to. I've had to tell them on several occasions to remove products past their sell by dates which are still on shelves.

Shopping is getting so stressful, but apparently if you do it from home you end up with rotten fruit and past sell by date products.

Goes back to supply and demand, more money coming in by poles living in GB and Brits moving into Poland, I feel sorry for the pensioner and the unemployed.

There we are! the millions of Brits moving to Poland are forcing up Prices. The greedy government putting up tax and Zuz are not to blame. Greedy company owners no, not to blame.
Polska dla Polakow! Go home Brits

Mike C hmmm.. When were you last in Poland? If you got out of your 5***** Hotel you will not be saying that Poland has a decent safety net. The average old age Pension is around 800zl a month and prices of some items are cheaper in the US or Oz, petrol by way of example cost almost 5zl, Unless you are a greedy businessman things are hard in Poland. I just wonder how the crash in the share market will effect the Poles?

Poland is doing well because of the billions of euros coming in from western Europe in EU handouts. Peopel see others getting rich from EU funds and want a piece of the same. It is this which is leading to price rises and pay claims across the board.

"Poland is doing well because of the billions of euros coming in from western Europe in EU handouts."

Pure nonsense.

I realize that it sounds cute and sarcastic and it’s nice to be able to quote Guardian op eds, but that’s a real simpleton way of looking at the issue.

Availability of EU funds is in no way indicative of the economy. Not to say they don’t play a role, but by stating incorrectly that “Poland is doing well because of the billions of euros coming in from western Europe in EU handouts” you are omitting a host of other factors, such as: FDI, stock market indexes, unemployment, productivity, rate of investment, and business as well as consumer spending.

EU funds are designated for infrastructure and cultural development. It shifts budgetary burden away from the Polish government, but it is not the engine behind Poland’s growth. Polish economy grew at faster pace during the 1990’s without any EU funding.

It also noteworthy to mention that over 70% of EU grants go unclaimed in Poland and are simply reinjected into next year’s budgets.

I agree with Mike. Most EU grants will be going on much needed improvements to infrastructure - roads, sanitation, border controls in the east etc. The odd controversial few will be wasted on "cultural events" somewhere near Hans.

Poland is doing well because of overseas investment by foreign companies and those (such as Mike) who are of Polish origin but living abroad. Or people like Hans who see investment opportunities there. Much of the success in Poland is also due to the extremely hard work many Poles put into business ventures. I know many people there who have very well run shops, factories, hotels etc. They are doing well as a result of their efforts. They are very driven and hardworking. I am basing my comments on my experiences on the area from Krakow towards Zakopane. An area which is definitely thriving right now as a direct result of the hard work of the people living there (and with help from eu investments in roads and sanitation!).